The goal of prehistoric archaeology is to reconstruct to the greatest extent possible, through the use of a wide array of scientific methods, the way of life of early nonliterate peoples. Determining the diet of such groups is one of the central concerns of prehistoric human ecology. Floral and faunal remains found in sites of human habitation are the principal forms of evidence archaeologists use. For example, pollen and seeds recovered from places where humans lived are compared with samples taken from locations with no sign of human habitation. If pollen and seeds of certain edible plants are found to be more abundant at the sites of human habitation, one may conclude that the plants were being eaten by human inhabitants.

In like fashion, zooarchaeologists are able to use animal bones abandoned at ancient hunter-gatherer living sites to reconstruct diet and even season of occupation. Sometimes they are able to use more direct evidence of human diet, drawn from the analysis of human bone. Chemical analysis of bones enables archaeologists to determine the proportion of meat to vegetable foods in the diet by measuring the proportion of calcium to strontium in ancient bone because strontium in place of calcium in bones comes primarily from ingested plants. Some information on diet can also be derived from fully fossilized teeth. Such information comes from the fine scratches on the surface of teeth caused by abrasive particles in the food, damage known as microwear.

It is in open-air sites that some prehistoric people lived in that one finds rich evidence for a variety of architectural features, indicating clearly that prehistoric people built shelters to protect themselves from snow, wind, and rain Perhaps the most frequently found structures are pavements made of river cobbles carried from some distance away. These structures, often square or rectangular, were probably the foundations for shelters made from skins and wood or animal bones. Even in caves and rock shelters, prehistoric people built additional shelter For example, a foundation for a dug-out hut—a shelter based on an excavated hole or depression~was uncovered in a 35.000-year-old site in Cueva Morin, a Spanish cave.

Sometimes open-air Upper Paleolithic sites show spectacular and unexpectedly complex architectural features. Such qualities are noteworthy at recently discovered sites in Ukraine and in the Czech Republic, where the primary building materials were the bones of woolly mammoths .At one site in Mezhirich, Ukraine, bones from 95 of these 10,000-pound animals were used to make a single dwelling. There were three more such dwellings at the Mezhirich site, composing a 15.000-year-old village. Each dwelling had a different arrangement of the giant bones, which came from the skeletons of long-dead animals retrieved from the surrounding area by occupants of the site, not from animals they had recently hunted. The different arrangements of the bones forming each dwelling yielded very different architectural styles and may have reflected different aesthetic requirements. Archaeologists estimate that one (Swelling alone would have taken ten people five days to build It is hard to know how many people lived at Mezhirlch. but. if one calculates one family unit per dwelling, the site would have housed about twenty-five people.

Plant materials, especial wood, would have been important as fuel for cooking, heating, and light Certain species of trees and shrubs were sought, especially as fuel for bonfires and torches used to provide light in caves. The charcoal recovered at some French sites came primarily from jumper bushes Their wood provided long-burning aromatic fuel because of its high resin content People relied primarily on fireplaces for warmth in cold weather .The fireplaces took a surprising number of different forms that varied from period to period and from region to region .They varied from very small (a few centimeters in diameter) to immense (as much as two meters in diameter), and from cobble-lined structures to simple pits. Some were dug into the ground; others were not Where available, wood served as the primary fuel. However, bone scraps (which made excellent fuel because of their fat content) were also used, especially in periods and regions without an abundance of wood.

史前考古学的目标是通过使用各种科学方法，尽可能最大限度地重建早期无文字社会中人的生活方式。确定这些群体的饮食习惯是史前人类生态学的一个核心问题。考古学家使用的证据的主要形式是在人类居住场所发现的植物和动物的遗骸。例如，将从人类居住的地方回收的花粉和种子，将其与在没有人类居住迹象的地点采集的样品进行比较。如果发现在人类居住的地方，某些食用植物的花粉和种子更为丰富，人们可能会因此得出结论说，这些植物正在为人类所食用。 采取类似的方式，动物考古学家能够使用废弃在古代狩猎采集生活场所的动物骨骼，来重建饮食习惯，甚至职业。有时，他们能够使用更为直接的证据来证明人类的饮食习惯，从人类骨骼的分析中得出结论。采取对骨骼进行化学分析的方法，考古学家能够通过测量古代骨骼中钙与锶的比例来确定食物中肉类与蔬菜食物的比例，因为骨骼中钙和锶主要来自于对植物的摄入。从彻底老化的牙齿也可以得出一些有关饮食的信息。这些信息来自食物中磨料颗粒给牙齿表面造成的细微划痕，即微磨痕。 在一些史前人类居住的露天场所，人们发现了丰富证据，以证明其各式各样的建筑特征，这清楚地表明，史前人类建造了避难所，以保护他们免受雪，风和雨的袭击。也许最常见的建筑物是由鹅卵石制成的人行道，而这些鹅卵石是从一段距离远的河边获得的。这些建筑结构通常是正方形或长方形，可能是用兽皮、木头或动物骨头做的庇护所的地基。即使有洞穴和石质庇护所，史前人类还是建造了其他的庇护所。例如，防空洞小屋的地基 – 这是一个基于已挖掘出来的洞穴或凹陷所建造的庇护所，该庇护所是一个西班牙洞穴，奎瓦莫林的一座拥有35000年历史的遗址。 有时，在露天旧石器时代遗址中，出现了一种壮观和意想不到的复杂建筑风格。在乌克兰和捷克共和国的最近发现的遗址中，这种风格非常显著，这些遗址的主要建筑材料是猛犸象的骨头。在乌克兰切尔卡瑟州的一处遗址中，有一处拥有15000年历史的村庄，每处住宅都有排列不同的巨骨，这些巨骨是该地区居住者从周边地区回收的，回收那些已经死去很久的动物的骨骼，而不是他们最近猎杀的动物的骨骼。每个住宅骨头的不同布置方法产生了非常不同的建筑风格，并且可能反映了不同的美学要求。考古学家估计，一个人独自居住的小屋就需要十个人花费五天的时间才能建造好。因而，很难知道到底有多少人居住在切尔卡瑟州。但是，如果将每个住宅来统计为一个家庭单位的话，那么将会有约二十五个人居住在这里。 植物材料，特别是木材，对于烹饪、取暖都是很重要的燃料，某些种类的树木和灌木特别作为用于在洞穴中篝火和火把的燃料，提供照明。在法国一些地方回收的木炭主要来自灌木丛。他们的木材因其树脂含量高所以能够使燃料长时间燃烧。人们在寒冷的天气中主要依靠壁炉获得温暖，壁炉在不同时期和地区有不同的形式，它们从小型（几厘米直径）到巨大型（直径多达两米）形状不等，从鹅卵石衬里结构到简单的矿坑结构。有些壁炉安装到地下; 还有一些地方不使用，虽然木材是作为主要燃料，但是也会使用了骨碎片（因为它们的脂肪含量非常高），特别是在没有大量木材的时期和地区。